Glen called out in warning once more. It was the first time in eighteen years on the job that he had to make the decision whether to pull the trigger or not.
The young man ignored his warning and raised the sword again over Fia.
It was easier than Glen thought it would be to squeeze the trigger. He wondered, in that split second before Derek went down, if his father hadn’t hesitated on that street corner, would he still be alive today?
Derek fell forward under the impact, his arms flying out in front of his body, the sword falling from his hands. He went down over Fia’s body and Glen ran toward them, prepared to fire again if the teenager moved.
The gunfire echoed in Kaleigh’s head and she felt her body convulse. Was she dying?
She smelled her own fresh blood, sweet and pungent, and the aroma teased her into awareness. The pool cue was still there, securing her bleeding body to the ground, but the excruciating pain had eased. Kaleigh could smell the grass. The wood burning in the campfire. She felt surrounded by the presence of the sept. Men and women who were individuals and yet moved as one.
Was this what it was for a vampire to die?
But Kaleigh knew she couldn’t be dying. She could feel the life pulsing inside her. Her body, on a cellular level, was already rejuvenating.
She raised one hand slowly to touch the place in the side of her abdomen where Derek had impaled her to the ground. Tears filled her eyes and she gulped. How could she have been so stupid? So blind? How could she have risked the lives of those she loved in this town for a boy like Derek?
“Someone out there?” Kaleigh whispered, choking on her tears. All she wanted was to go home. To be home with her parents. With the sept. With those who had loved her all these centuries.
Where were they? She could still feel their presence.
Her eyes were open, but she saw no sept members. All she could see when she turned her head was Agent Duncan rolling Derek’s body over onto his back and checking for a pulse.
Derek was dead. She knew he was dead. She could feel death’s cold, spiny fingers in the air. She could smell Derek’s blood, spilled into the leaves on the ground.
Get him.
Take him now.
The thoughts of sept members surrounding them in the woods hit Kaleigh hard. They really were here. Sweet Mary, what was happening? She wanted to call out. But the human was right there.
She could feel the sept members closing in. Eight or nine of them, creeping through the darkness.
Kaleigh squeezed her eyes shut hard and tried to listen, the way Maria and Katy said it was done. For weeks, Kaleigh had been catching pieces of other sept members’ thoughts, but she’d been fighting it. She wasn’t ready. Didn’t want the gift that had somehow seemed more of a curse to her. At least until this moment.
But she was getting nothing! Just jumbles of words and thoughts and the overwhelming feeling that something terrible, even more terrible than this, was about to happen….
Kill him. Kill the human FBI agent.
That thought came through so clearly that Kaleigh’s eyes flew open. “No!” she shouted.
“It’s okay, Kaleigh, I’m coming,” the agent called from across the clearing. “Just try to stay still. Stay calm.”
No, Kaleigh thought. They can’t kill him. I can’t let them. “Fia!” she cried out. Fia would stop the black-cloaked sept members approaching in the darkness, their daggers gleaming.
“Kaleigh,” the human called to her. “Fia’s not dead. She’s hurt, but I think she’s going to be okay. She’s breathing normally. Starting to come around. I’m coming. Just hang on!”
Kill him. Kill him now.
He knows too much. He will be the death of us all.
The voices were suddenly so loud in Kaleigh’s head that there was no denying them. Misinterpreting them. Stop, she warned them telepathically. Stop now. He saved us. He saved our lives, mine and Fia’s. It was Derek. Derek killed them. You can’t harm the human.
Kaleigh? A voice probed in her head. It’s Mary. Are you all right?
Now. We must strike now, one of the men in the forest insisted.
Stop them, Mary, Kaleigh telepathed. Stop them. Special Agent Duncan saved our lives. He doesn’t know about us. Don’t let them do this.
Stop.
Stop.
More voices echoed in Kaleigh’s head. It was the oddest sensation. Not only could she hear the sept members’ words in her head, but lying on the cold ground, she could feel their words.
Everyone was listening to her. They knew her voice in their heads. There was only one dissenter.
No. He must die. It’s the only way to protect the sept.
It was Fia’s brother Regan.
Kaleigh remembered now why she had never liked him in previous lives. She remembered that she could never quite trust him.
I said STOP NOW. Stop now, Regan Kahill, or you’ll stand before the council and defend your actions!
“Kaleigh.” Special Agent Duncan sprinted toward her. He fell to his knees, looking down on her, brushing her hair from her forehead. He looked scared. He thought she was going to die.
She almost laughed. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Around her, Kaleigh could feel the sept members backing up. Someone was arguing with Regan, putting strong hands on him. Leading him away. The others were quietly withdrawing…disappearing into the darkness.
“There’s help coming,” the FBI agent assured her, taking her hand in his. “Just hang in there.”
“Kaleigh? Kaleigh, are you all right?” Fia stumbled toward the girl still sprawled on the ground. Still impaled. Fia was dizzy. Disoriented. Her head hurt like hell.
Glen
